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Russia launches Cyrillic top-level domain

Medvedev applauds президент.рф

Russia yesterday acquired the Cyrillic top-level domain .рф, as reps from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) handed over the corresponding administration certificate at an internet forum in Moscow.

This went down extremely well with Dmitry Medvedev, according to Pravda. The president told the "committee for modernization and technological development of the nation’s economy": “I have just checked, the website президент.рф is up and running. The Cyrillic website of the government downloads too.

"The websites of other state departments will have Cyrillic domains ready this month. Commercial companies will be able to use Cyrillic domain names a bit later. Russia has become the first country in the world which obtained the national domain of the top level.”

Now that the Russian Federation has its own locally-lingoed TLD, it can get on with Medvedev's vision of becoming a world IT superpower. He's apparently set his sights on nurturing a powerful Russian comms bear, and told the gathering: “We do not have to invent a wooden bicycle in the field of communication standards. But if Russia could become a trendsetter in the field of IT technologies, it would be good.

"It is much more pleasant when the world lives on your standards than when you have to adjust to someone else’s standards.”